In the Scottish Courts
| Published date | 01 January 1944 |
| Date | 01 January 1944 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002201834400800106 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
In the Scottish Courts
FAILURE
TO
FENCE
DANGEROUS
MACHINERY
Lyon
v. Don Brothers,
Buist
<5-
Co.
Ltd
THE stringent
nature
of
the
criminal liability
under
the
Factories Act, 1937 was stressed in
the
decision
of an English Divisional Court in Wraith v. Flexible Metal
Co. Ltd. (106
J.P.
286;
'1943 1 K.B. 24), of which a report
appeared in Vol. 7 of this
JOURNAL
at
p. 196. Now comes
a decision of
the
High Court of
Justiciary
in which
the
judges (to whom a full citation of
the
relevant English
authorities was made) reached
their
conclusion
by
similar
reasoning
and
applied to
the
occupiers of factories in
Scotland an equally stringent standard.
The appeal,
taken
by
H.M. Inspector of Factories,
was against
the
refusal of Sheriff Mackinnon
at
Forfar
to
find proved acharge of contravening section 14(1) of
the
Factories Act, 1937, which requires every dangerous
part
of
any
machinery to be securely fenced. The dangerous
machinery specified in
the
complaint consisted of
the
gear wheels driving
the
drawing roller of a jute-spinning
breaker card.
The
respondents"
were"
alimited company
carrying on business in
Forfar
as
jute
manufacturers.
The main facts proved,
at
the
hearing of evidence on
aplea of
not
guilty,
were-that
for 11 years
the
factory
had
contained four machines known as breaker cards,
which were in daily
use;
that
abreaker
card
is driven
by
gear wheels
at
the
side extending to a height of over 7feet
and
entirely fenced off from a person standing on
the
floor
by. a cage of steel
rods;
that
one of
the
two operatives
required to work
the
machine
must
stand
on a platform
about
4feet from
the
ground, fitted
with
a
guard
rail;
that
"when
the
operative is standing on
the
platform and
engaged
in
his work
the
gear wheels are from two
to
three
feet away from him
and
are, when he is thus engaged, beyond
his
reach";
that,
on
the
date
libelled in
the
complaint,
'7
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